The present invention relates to a resource model and architecture for network connection handling in a telecommunication system. In particular the architecture is used for controlling establishment of various types of connections within a distributed network element (NE). The resource model is common to a number of different switching technologies such as STM (synchronous transmission mode) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode). The resource model as a platform that can be used by a number of different telecommunication applications. Examples of applications are narrow band ISDN (integrated services digital network), broadband ISDN, GSM (global mobile system) networks. PSTN (public switched telephone network).